It’s not inconceivable that this will be the biggest game the team has yet played, given that it could hand its opponent a playoff spot or could boost Bridgeport above said opponent. Here are a few more possibilities for Biggest Regular-Season Game In Team History:
–April 7, 2002, Bridgeport 4, Hartford 1: “The Raffi Torres Game.” “What? Game 7? I thought…” “No, the regular-season one.” “Oh.” For all the marbles. After going 1-2-1-1 to stumble toward the finish, Bridgeport wins to clinch first overall.
–April 10, 2004, Philadelphia 0, Bridgeport 0: The first and to-date only time Bridgeport has pulled its goalie in overtime. Bridgeport needed a win to avoid allowing the Phantoms to clinch the division. (Would you pull a goalie in OT now, unless it was impossibly late? You can no longer tie, and you’d take the coin-flip of the shootout, right?)
–April 1, 2007, Bridgeport 4, Albany 2: The Mike Mole game (the one that wasn’t at Hershey). One day after Billy Thompson gives up those late goals to lose to the Bears at Giant Center, Mole comes back, and they contain Keith Aucoin.
–April 7, 2007, Albany 3, Bridgeport 2 (SO): They come back after they have to kill a Masi Marjamaki major and get it to a shootout; they can’t get the win. Trevor Smith scores his first pro goal after about a two-and-a-half-minute Blake Comeau shift (power play into even strength).
–April 5, 2008, Hershey 6, Bridgeport 3: The Cavalry Game, or the Joey MacDonald Game. (It was the former and probably became the latter.) Bridgeport takes a 3-2 lead into the third after getting everyone back from the Islanders, then blows it in the third. Instead of a one-point Hershey lead, it’s five with five to play.
–March 28, 2009, Hershey 7, Bridgeport 2: The Kronwall Game. Or the Giroux Game. (I dunno which; I was stuck at Harbor Yard watching Vermont.) The Bears went in with a three-point lead and two games in hand. This meant that even Bridgeport’s five-game winning streak to end the season wouldn’t be enough.
(I’m only counting them if you knew they were big going in. The win over the Penguins on Dec. 21, 2005, is huge in hindsight, but going in, it was a stumbling team that had one win in eight games against an apparent juggernaut. The Hamilton whitewash with four games left in 2002-03 is similar.)
The first two and the last aren’t for survival, so that might take them down a notch. The stakes were big in the first one, though, and there was an electric feel to the barn, so I’d keep it in the mix. (You probably never saw the counterfactual fun I played around with three years ago.) You’ve probably got to get rid of one or the other Albany game; the former kept them alive (though ultimately without success) after a devastating, devastating loss; the latter more or less kicked them down.
I dunno. Maybe it will be this one. What may put it over the top is the expectation. I noted earlier today how it feels like such a long time since the last game? Most of these other games were on a Saturday or Sunday. All of those games had a game the night before except last year’s Hershey blowout and the scoreless tie, which was the Saturday of a Thursday-Saturday-Sunday finish. The Cavalry Game had Jeff Tambellini’s five-point game the night before at home. The Mole Game had the James Sixsmith/Billy Thompson Game. The Torres Game had the overtime loss the night before at Hartford.
For this one, it has been waiting and scoreboard-watching since Saturday night. Can’t wait to see what happens.
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Unofficial referee assignments for the weekend, gathered off the ‘net, from which we’ve seen changes in the past at times: David Banfield at Lowell, Nygel Pelletier vs. Manchester, Jamie Koharski vs. Hartford. Shaun Davis works both Norfolk-Hershey games. The Pens have Ryan Fraser vs. Albany, Mark Lemelin at Binghamton and Pelletier to finish against Binghamton. Lowell has Jamie Koharski at Portland and Lemelin against Providence.
Bridgeport is 2-3 this year with Banfield, 19-13-0-2 all-time; this year’s two wins are the two home overtime wins against Lowell. The Sound Tigers are 5-3-0-1 and 16-13-2-1 with Pelletier. They’ve seen Jamie Koharski only three times and are 0-2-1-0, 15-14-1-2, including a 4-1 loss to Hartford in November. None of those numbers mean a thing when they drop the puck. But there they are.